A Bad Deal

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”  

James 1:2-4

I think of all verses in Scripture, this is the one that I have wrestled with more than most others. Finding joy in trials feels masochistic. As if I am supposed to cheer, “Thank you Lord I’ll have another!”  

Before digging into this bad deal many of us make, let me say a quick word about the limitation of knowledge as it relates to this James 1 “joy in trials” experience. Consider the degree of difficulty one has to live “joy in trials” versus the comparative ease of memorizing a set of biblical truths. This is not to say that biblical knowledge is bad at all. It is to say that I’d rather run with someone who knows how to find joy in trials than someone who just knows a bunch of Bible. 

I digress.   

I wonder how you feel about James 1:2-4? I wonder how your life experience over years in the war has influenced the depth of your understanding of, and appreciation of, these rather short verses? 

I think there can be a bad deal many of us make with our Father that James 1:2-4 exposes. To the degree that this bad deal is in place in your relationship, is the degree that you will keep distance from Him and miss out on inner healing and anointing.  

The bad deal goes something like this, “I give You my loyalty in exchange for You fixing my trials in a timely manner.”  

Loyalty for fixing. 

I see this on repeat in people’s lives because their intimacy, devotion, and hunger for Yahweh thins to the point of vanishing as trials persist. “I thought walking with God meant that He would deliver me from all my trials?!” “I know trials come. I am not naive enough to believe that I won’t struggle, but I thought that as I faced trials He would part seas.” “Doesn’t ‘greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world,’ mean that He will make me victorious in my trials?”  

And as one trial continues to the point of becoming chronic, and the “victim” feels the weight of their inability to change the circumstances, that through sheer force of will or personality they cannot cause anything to change, anger at God can intensify. Separation happens. After all, according to our deal I am being loyal…WHERE IS HIS FIXING?  

A bit of my journey in discovering the power of James 1. Jesus came into my life when I was 26. I am 52 now. For the past 26 years I have lived on the frontline of the war of life. My path has not been easy. I have battled issues with alcohol; pornography; family of origin and generations; demons; career change; marriage; miscarriage; money; being fired; shutting down a church; death of my mom, one of my best friends, and the suicide of a dear brother; bouts of depression and internal darkness; physical issues with heart, back, and knee; parenting struggles and fears; missing paychecks because ministry didn’t have the money to pay; and an assortment of others.  

Sometimes, God my Father has resolved an issue rather quickly. Sometimes. More often, what I have experienced is that He gives me what I need to persevere in the trial. 

AH.  

Perseverance.  

If there is a word we do not like, I think it is perseverance. In the United States we certainly do not value perseverance. Perseverance is what people do who are too poor to “money” their way of their trials. Consequently, we pity those who are persevering as if they are second class people.  

But James 1:2-4 shatters our Loyalty/Fixer deal by describing the value and blessing of perseverance. Remember, James is just a man himself who has lived in the war. He is believed to be the half-brother of Jesus and the leader of the church in Jerusalem. He witnessed the trials, persecution, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. He experienced Roman and Jewish brutality. Jewish leaders, deploying skilled, evil men like Saul (who would become Paul), savagely sought to extinguish Christians. His friend Stephen was martyred. Peter and John were imprisoned. And he faced the daily burden of leading the first church of people in The Way. 

From his experience of life on the battlefield he launches his letter written to brothers and sisters in Christ with a commendation to perseverance. In essence he says, “Life is not easy. Following Jesus is not easy. He told us that in this world we would have trials. The reality of various kinds of trials, internal and external, is not going anywhere. One truly great treasure of life in Christ is the power to endure regardless of the trial!” 

The Loyalty/Fixer bad deal must be crushed in part because it does not work, but mainly because it prevents you from experiencing something far deeper, richer, and more valuable.  

The new, real deal is that you and I are adopted into the family of our Father in Jesus. Sometimes He fixes our trials in a timely manner. All the time He supplies what we need to persevere. The incredible gift we receive through perseverance is freedom from fear of any, and all, future trials! 

• Re-read Psalm 23 through this “new deal/perseverance” perspective and see what the Holy Spirit shows you. 

• Look at Hebrews 12:1, “Let us run with endurance (perseverance) the race set before us…” 

In the bad Loyalty/Fixer deal all you will look to get from our Father are solutions and breakthroughs to trials. You will never look for His supply and power to persevere. And you will be frustrated because it does not seem like He is doing anything. He is not listening, and He does not care.  

But your bad deal has blinded and deafened you to seeing and hearing what He is actually doing. And what He is actually doing is supplying you with Holy Spirit juice and electricity so that you can persevere.  

But you don’t want to persevere.  

Which I totally understand!  

Nevertheless, trials are a reality of life, and He never offered you a Loyalty/Fixer relationship. And there is great joy in experiencing the persevering power of the Holy Spirit lifting you, carrying you, and strengthening you! You do not have to be tough on your own. You do not have to manufacture endurance. The Holy Spirit will joyfully supply all you need in the darkest and longest of trials.  

If you live in the bad Loyalty/Fixer deal, are you willing to repent of it? Are you willing to renounce that way of relating to your Father and be invited into deeper waters of love and power? Then repent. Ask forgiveness for trying to dictate relational terms. Experience new floods of intimacy and possibility. Ask for strength to persevere! 

I find identifying my trials and writing them down super helpful. When I leave my trials in my head, they can easily become outsized as my thoughts move like a tornado. When I write down my current trials the Holy Spirit creates space between me and the trial. I breathe deeply. And then I surrender my trial(s) to our Father resting in His love and grace for me. My trial(s) is His to deal with. And I do this throughout the day as needed.  

In the next Overflow, let’s unpack the role of emotions in this new, perseverance deal with our Father so that we do not fall prey to the idea that somehow to walk by faith is to be void of emotion.  

Let’s run God’s race with perseverance in the Overflow, not shrinking back because the Fixer did not fix when we wanted Him to.